Equal Opportunity (Domestic Abuse) Amendment Bill

Thursday 18 May 2023

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (17:14): I rise today in support of the Equal Opportunity (Domestic Abuse) Amendment Bill 2022 to amend the Equal Opportunity Act 1984. This bill seeks to prohibit discrimination on the basis that someone is or has been subjected to domestic abuse, delivering on yet another election commitment of the Malinauskas Labor government.

At present, the Equal Opportunity Act prohibits discrimination against South Australians on their race, ethnicity, gender or sexuality, or how they choose to express their age, religion, disability or work as a carer, or whether or not they are pregnant or breastfeeding, or their spousal status, as it should, but it does not prohibit discrimination against South Australians who have experienced or who are currently experiencing domestic violence. The successful passage of this bill would change that. South Australians experiencing or who have experienced domestic and family violence could have already been afforded this protection.

Three years ago the then shadow minister, now Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, introduced a bill to include the experience of domestic violence as a ground of discrimination in the Equal Opportunity Act. Even in opposition, it was Labor who led the charge for the promotion of gender equality in South Australia. It was a Labor opposition who introduced legislation to criminalise coercive control, toughen penalties for breaches of domestic violence intervention orders, waive fees for court-initiated domestic violence intervention orders and to ban the Wicked campervans.

But we will not just sit here and pat ourselves on the back for things we have or could have done. The horrific scourge of domestic and family violence, harassment and disrespect towards women continues. It is unacceptable, and every single member in this place and the other place should be doing everything they can possibly do to prevent violence and to address gender inequality at its core. Our parliament and those right across this country must continue to do more until we no longer have to say that more than one woman per week in Australia dies as a result of domestic violence perpetrated by a current or former partner.

Labor is committed to achieving gender equality. Addressing inequality and empowering women and girls to equally participate in our homes, our schools, our workplaces, our parliaments and in every single aspect of our economy and community life is a core Labor value. We want and we need to create a state in which your gender has no bearing on the opportunities available to you and no bearing on your safety.

The bill before us today is a reflection of that value and commitment: a commitment to ensuring that every woman in South Australia is safe, able to build a financially sustainable future for themselves and their loved ones and can socially and economically participate to the fullest extent they choose. The passage of this bill would deliver on our commitment to promote the safety and wellbeing of South Australian women and to promote gender equality in our state.

This would join a list of achievements already accomplished by this government in our first 12 months, including legislating 15 paid days' domestic and family violence leave for public sector and local government workers, reinstating the Premier's Women's Directory, establishing the homeless women's taskforce, and supporting Catherine House—not cutting their funding—and much more.

A huge thank you to the work of our Attorney-General, our Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence and their respective departments and staff, as well as the Commissioner for Equal Opportunity, for all their work in bringing this bill to this place. We must also show our appreciation for the South Australian trade union movement and organisations supporting those experiencing domestic and family violence including my old workplace, Women's Safety Services SA, and indeed every single South Australian who has long called for this simple yet powerful change to our Equal Opportunity Act. I understand that more than 20 stakeholders were invited to comment on this bill, and I thank them for their important contributions and for their support.

This bill proposes to make it unlawful to treat someone unfavourably because they or their relative or associate have been, or are being, subjected to domestic abuse. The Intervention Orders (Prevention of Abuse) Act 2009 defines an act of abuse as any act:

…against a person if it results in, or is intended to result in—

(a) physical injury; or

(b) emotional or psychological harm; or

(c) an unreasonable and non-consensual denial of financial, social or personal autonomy; or

(d) damage to property in the ownership or possession of the person or used or otherwise enjoyed by the person.

This act further defines an act of abuse as domestic abuse if it is committed by a defendant against a person with whom the defendant is, or was formerly, in a relationship. The bill before us today shares the definition of domestic abuse with the existing intervention orders legislation—a broad and progressive definition encompassing physical, emotional and financial abuse, as well as coercive controlling behaviours.

As I have shared with the house previously, while the majority of domestic and family violence perpetrators are men, the majority of men are not perpetrators. It is still important to note that the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Personal Safety Survey paints a sobering, non-negotiable reality that it is overwhelmingly women against whom domestic and family violence is perpetrated.

As of the most recent ABS data, one in six women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by a current or former partner since the age of 15, one in four women have experienced emotional abuse by a current or former partner since the age of 15, and one in five women—or 1.7 million Australian women—have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we know these numbers have only become worse.

The Australian Institute of Criminology found that between February 2020 and February 2021 18 per cent of women respondents reported experiencing emotionally abusive, harassing and controlling behaviours from an intimate partner for the first time—that is one in five women. I think the fact that people were trapped at home during COVID meant that these behaviours of some partners were exacerbated, and people did not have the support options they would normally have and were not able to get out and find supports that they needed and connect with their networks.

The National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey in 2017 found that almost one in three Australians believed that women who do not leave their abusive partners are partly responsible for violence continuing. Over 40 per cent of Australians agreed that it was common for sexual assault accusations to be used as a way of getting back at men. More than one in five Australians agreed that sometimes a woman can make a man so angry that he hits her without meaning to. These attitudes are deeply wrong; they are disgusting and they have no basis in reality or fact whatsoever. It is attitudes such as these that we must target to promote gender equality and end domestic and family violence.

We need to educate our community. In our homes, in our schools and in our workplaces, I know we can achieve this. Bills such as this will help us to achieve this. By including the experience of domestic abuse in the Equal Opportunity Act, we can help protect victim survivors and their families. We can give those South Australians who encounter discrimination as a result of their experience of domestic violence a voice and an avenue for redress. We can open the door to victim survivors being heard.

South Australians would be rightly disgusted to learn that without this amendment a worker could be criticised or treated poorly because they took time off on domestic violence leave. They would be ashamed to learn they live in a state where a landlord could refuse to rent a property to someone because they are protected under an intervention order. They expect more from their representatives, and I am so glad that now they find enough representatives in this place who prioritise the safety and wellbeing of women to support bills such as these and to prioritise them.

This bill is so simple yet so powerful to victim survivors of domestic and family violence in South Australia. It is yet another example of our government empowering women in the workplace, to the benefit of everyone in the workplace—employers included. We have and will continue to legislate in the interests of Labor, not to scare employers but to show that to lift one, can lift all.

This bill will not prohibit employers from taking reasonable action in relation to an employee underperforming who has been or is experiencing domestic or family violence, so long as it is in accordance with fair and reasonable policies that apply equally to any underperforming employee. If a rising tide can lift all boats, then good government can empower all workplaces to provide the conditions required for their workers to prosper.

By amending the Equal Opportunity Act, this bill will prohibit discrimination in all areas of public life, being employment or engagement in work (including unpaid work), the provision of education, decisions of associations and qualifying bodies, and the provision of land, goods, services and accommodation. Discrimination against anyone subjected to domestic and family violence will be prohibited, regardless of whether they have an intervention order in place.

This bill also does not require the perpetrator of the abuse to have been convicted of any offence. South Australians experiencing domestic violence need to know they are heard and they are believed. They need to know their workplace and their government have their back. I am relieved that this legislation is finally being seriously considered by a state government who cares and cares deeply. I commend the bill to the house.